


Like A Star

by starryeyedchar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with no happy ending, Blood and Injury, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Character Study, First Kiss, Heavy Angst, I Made Myself Cry, I'm Sorry, Last Kiss, M/M, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 20:24:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedchar/pseuds/starryeyedchar
Summary: “How do you want to die?”The question came out of nowhere, startling Keith out of his thoughts. He was even more shocked that Lance had asked this, of all people. Lance, who was smiling or laughing more often than not, asking about death?Keith wouldn't have believed it, if they weren't the only two people standing on the bridge, looking at the star map.“I... I don't know,” Keith stammered. “I've never really... given it much thought.” And he hadn't. Keith never stopped to consider that death was even a possibility. Because it wasn't an option— they were going to win.Heroes always won.Lance wants to die like a star.





	Like A Star

**Author's Note:**

> It’s the two year anniversary of Voltron, and so naturally I have to post something! Season six comes out soon, and I wanted this to go up before that, so here you guys go! Just a heads up; I never cry writing angst, but I cried writing this.
> 
> This is my personal take on Lance’s whole ‘let’s go down swinging’ philosophy, how I think he’d want to go out, and how I think Keith would react, since it’s a Keith-perspective(ish) piece that still focuses on Lance. I’m not sure if anything like this has been done before, and it probably has knowing how much people in this fandom put Lance through, but this is my take on that. I had the small idea of the title and how it would go and it just kind of… turned into this.
> 
> I’ve been wanting to post this for a while, but haven’t because it’s a bit… different than what I usually do. Still, I hope you enjoy, and I always like hearing your thoughts!

“How do you want to die?”

The question came out of nowhere, startling Keith out of his thoughts. He was even more shocked that _Lance_ had asked this, of all people. Lance, who was smiling or laughing more often than not, asking about _death_?

Keith wouldn't have believed it, if they weren't the only two people standing on the bridge, looking at the star map.

“What...?” he asked intelligently, unsure what else to say. Lance huffed a short laugh.

“How do you want to die?” he repeated. He looked over at Keith this time, and met his eyes. “It's a simple question, really.”

“I... I don't know,” Keith stammered. “I've never really... given it much thought.” And he hadn't. Keith never stopped to consider that death was even a possibility. Because it wasn't an option— they were going to win.

Heroes always won.

Lance hummed thoughtfully. “Well, we're kind of fighting an alien _war_ , but sure. Death could never touch the mighty Keith. His mullet is feared in every corner of the universe!” He broke off into laughter, and Keith shoved him lightly, forcing a smile.

“Have you?” Keith asked, genuinely curious. “Thought about it, I mean.”

“Well, yeah,” Lance said, as if it were obvious. As if the very idea of him dying wasn't... impossible. “Of course I have.”

But death could never touch Lance either. Not someone so... _radiant_ , like Lance was in everything he did. Apparently, he didn't see it like that.

“So... how do you want to die, then?”

“Well, when I was little I wanted the end to come on a beach,” Lance began, eyes suddenly a million miles away. Keith didn't miss them snagging on a particular part of the star map. “I had all these dramatic ways cooked up in my head. Maybe I'd drown after getting swept away by a riptide, or I'd get attacked by a shark while surfing. Something really cool like that.”

Keith failed to see how dying could in any way be _cool_ , but he didn't interrupt him.

“And then when I got older... I don't know. I've always had a big family, so I guess I wanted one in the future some day, for myself. A lot of kids, even grandkids, all that nonsense,” Lance told him, with a small smile. “Seems kinda unrealistic now, but... anyway. I think the best way to go would be surrounded by family, by people you care about, people you love, who remind you of the life you lived. You know?”

Keith didn't know, didn't understand, but he nodded along anyway.

“But now that we're here... defenders of the whole freaking _universe_...” Lance trailed off, sighed, then smiled again. There was something almost bitter in it. “I've had to reevaluate my plans a bit.”

“How so?”

“I want to die like a star,” Lance said, and his voice had suddenly gone so soft that Keith didn't know what to say in response.

“What, like, a movie star? Why does that not surprise me?” Keith tried for humor. The laugh died before it made its way out of his mouth.

Lance glanced at him briefly, then kept going, the words spilling out of his mouth faster and faster as he went on. As if he'd been wanting to say them for a while.

“No, like— an actual star. Shining. Like a big, supernova explosion,” Lance continued. “I want my death to _mean_ something. I've come to terms with the fact that I'll probably die out here, but I don't want to be someone that's just... gone. I want my death to be something everyone else will remember.”

He paused to look at Keith again, who could do nothing but stare at him.

Lance brought a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. “I know. It's pretty selfish of me, isn't it?”

Keith shook his head immediately, because Lance wasn't selfish at all. Anything but, really. He just didn't know why it'd taken him so long to notice.

“How...” Keith had never been good at putting his thoughts into words, but he had to try anyway. “How can you just... assume that you're going to _die_ out here?”

_You can't die, you can't leave. It's_ impossible _._

“It seems a little unrealistic that we'd all make it out of this unscathed,” Lance pointed out, and since when was he the logical one? “And if any of us was going to be the one to bite it, it'd totally be me, right? You have to realize _that_.”

Before Keith could even comprehend the meaning of those words, Lance stood up. He patted Keith on the shoulder as he headed for the door, and waved goodbye over his shoulder.

“Let me know when you figure it out! I've always had you pegged for either being too reckless or sacrificing yourself in some grand hero gesture. Sound about right?”

Keith stared after him, looking at Lance like he'd never seen him before.

 

* * *

 

Months went by, and that conversation was pushed to the back of Keith's mind. He chalked it up to Lance messing with him, and everything else continued as normal.

And then it happened.

The battle was a difficult one, and one they were clearly losing. The Galra fleets just kept coming, seemingly no end to the amount of soldiers they had to fight. A few of the bigger factions after Zarkon fell had apparently teamed up, and attacked them all at once. They wound up splitting apart Voltron just to take care of them all.

It happened because Shiro and Matt had gone on a separate assignment on a podship a few days prior. Keith was, by chance, back from his latest mission with the Blade, and so had wound up having to pilot the black lion to counter the ambush.

Something he hadn't had to do in a while.

Keith was stupid. Reckless. He forgot that his connection to Black was still weak; he hadn't spent anywhere near enough time piloting the lion to really master it.

So he got in too close to the ship, and his lion froze up. Some sort of tractor beam, it must've been.

Keith was trapped.

And then the Galra began charging their ion cannon.

“Keith, get out of there!” Allura shouted. She was the first one to notice.

“I can't! It's a tractor beam— I can't control the lion! Black won't move!”

“You _cannot_ let that blast hit you!” Pidge insisted. “If it does, it might— you might not make it!”

Keith grit his teeth, pulling desperately at the controls, but it was no use. They'd never been able to escape a tractor beam before without Voltron, or an outside force physically pushing them out of the way. He was stuck.

Stuck, right in the line of fire of something that had nearly destroyed the castle, even with it's massive size and powerful shields.

He wouldn't stand a chance.

“Can we— what can we do? We can get to him, right? We could take out the ship first?” Hunk was clearly growing frantic.

“I... I don't know if there's anything you can do,” Keith said softly.

“The Galra have us completely split up!” Allura reminded them. “We can't possibly work around all these ships and get there in time. There must be another way. Keith, can you try harder to focus on bonding with your lion? If she feels you're in danger, she should protect you!”

He was already trying to concentrate as hard as he possibly could, but nothing was working.

“This is exactly what the Galra wanted to happen,” Pidge realized. He could hear her voice shaking. “Keith— I'm trying to— I'm sorry, I—”

“It's okay,” Keith said, and was surprised to find that he meant it. “It might be too late for me to get completely out of the way, anyway.”

It was strange. Something in Keith's mind registered that this was the end, but an odd sort of calm settled over him.

_Lance did say I'd die being reckless._

The thought sparked a chain reaction, and suddenly Keith's mind was reeling.

Lance hadn't said anything, even though the others were still shouting into the coms, even Coran. He looked over to where he'd last seen the red lion taking down a battle cruiser, but it was nowhere to be seen.

He... he would've liked to maybe hear Lance's stupid voice one more time, before he died. He would've liked to...

“Guys,” Keith said suddenly, feeling the need to say _something_ to express at least some of what he felt. These guys were as good as family to him, after all. “Thank you, for always being there for me. All of you, I—”

“Oh, no you don't!” Lance's angry voice cut him off, and while Keith would normally be irritated by such a tone directed at him, now he couldn't find it in himself to feel anything but fond. “You are _not_ dying like this!”

“Lance, I don't really think we have a choice. My lion won't _move_.”

There was a pause, and for a moment Keith could hear nothing save for the ion canon continuing to charge up. Then, “Mine will.”

It finally clicked in Keith's head, and he turned with horror to see the red lion barreling towards him, at full speed.

_The red lion is the fastest, and most agile. It requires a skilled pilot who relies more on instincts than skill alone._

Lance maneuvered easily around the ships, ignoring the shots they took at him and heading straight for Keith.

_Maybe the most reckless lion and the most reckless pilot really did go together well, after all._

None of the others would've made it in time, but that didn't matter.

Because what Lance was doing... this plan was suicidal. The red lion had the least amount of armor, and Keith would know. She may have been fast, but she took a _lot_ of damage. Lance didn't seem to care about any harm befalling himself.

_But... he'd said that_ Keith _would be the one to make the grand hero gesture._

“No, _no_ , Lance, you can't, you'll just get us both killed, for _once in your life_ don't get in the way—”

“Sorry, Samurai,” Lance said, and god _damn_ it, how could he sound so happy? “I can never resist getting in your way.”

The red lion slammed into him at the exact time the ion canon fired, and the momentum was enough to send Keith clear of the blast. He opened his eyes after his lion stilled again post-impact, and—

Lance hadn't been so lucky.

The light of the blast was like a _million_ stars. It was too bright, too blinding.

Supernova.

_“I want to die like a star.”_

The words replayed in Keith's head, only to be drowned out by the screaming. _So many voices_ , screaming. His own throat felt raw.

Lance was too, at first, the sound unlike anything Keith had ever heard from him before.

But when Lance's voice died with the light of the ion canon, leaving nothing but a silent, dark-eyed lion suspended broken in the emptiness, it was even worse.

“LANCE?!” Hunk was the first to call out, the one word already betraying his sheer panic. “LANCE!”

“You... he wouldn't... Lance can't be...” Pidge's voice shook before dying into nothing more than a whisper they could barely hear. “I can't lose any more of my family.”

_Me neither._

He knew Pidge thought of Lance like a brother, and while he didn't know exactly what Lance was to him, he knew he couldn't lose it.

“Lance! Answer us! Say something!” That was Allura, trying to stay strong. Her voice broke on the last word anyway.

The coms gave them nothing but static.

“Lance,” Keith whispered. “Lance, please.”

Lance didn't respond. But Black did.

Perhaps the tractor beam was entirely out of range, or perhaps his apparent distress at Lance's current predicament was enough to make her open her mouth.

Whichever it was, Keith wasted no time in jet-packing over to Lance's lion, and Red immediately let him in. He knew she still cared for him.

Maybe that's why she let Lance put himself in so much danger, because it would've been Keith instead.

Another thing that made Red and Lance so annoyingly similar; they both threw caution to the wind to save Keith, on numerous occasions.

And Keith had... he'd missed both of them, while with the Blade. Terribly.

He could sense Red's sadness and regret as he explored their old bond. Almost like she was... mourning.

The thought did nothing to calm his nerves.

And when he got _inside_ the lion...

Red. Much, much too much red.

Blood was _everywhere_.

Lance had been knocked to the floor, and was lying in a puddle of it. Keith couldn't figure out the source, but the sheer amount of it was enough to chill him to his core.

He was on his knees beside Lance in a second, and pulling him into his lap. The slight rise and fall of Lance's chest didn't give him any comfort, not with the strangled sound of his breathing.

The pulse Keith found on his wrist was too slow. Too soft.

He looked back to Lance's face, and fresh tears rolled down his cheeks when he saw that the other was awake. Pained, glossy, ocean blue eyes met Keith's.

“L... _Lance._ ” Keith's voice desperately clung onto the word.

“Hey, man,” Lance replied, and somehow found the courage to smile. “Why're you crying?”

“Why... _Why am I_ — Lance, you're... you're...”

_You're dying._ He couldn't even bring himself to say it. That would make it real.

“I know, I know, but you don't have to be sad.” Lance coughed, and a small trail of blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. “This is just how I wanted to go, after all.”

Keith shook his head, grasping for something, _anything_. "You... you _can't_ die here. You just pushed me out of the way, that's not... this isn't good enough. This is reckless, this is how you said _I_ would die, remember? You need to get that big, supernova ending, right? Like a star? _It's not supposed to be my fault_ , I—” he stopped, choked off by a sob. “It _can't_ be my fault.”

“It's not your fault,” Lance said, voice firm despite the pain he was feeling. “And... that's not quite what I... what I meant. I mean, d-don't get me wrong, the... explosion was n-n-nice, b-but I meant... I meant... being cr-cradled in your a-arms.”

Keith didn't understand. “...What? No. You... you wanted to go out with something meaningful, right? That's not—”

“Of course I d-do,” Lance cut him off. "And this... it is. But before... before th-that, do you... do you r-remember what I said?”

Keith blinked, the tears spilling out of his eyes. “Of _course_ I remember.” How could he forget? “You... you said that back on Earth, you wanted to die with your family, people you care about. People you—” And Keith stopped, eyes blown wide. “No.”

“People I love,” Lance finished for him, smiling shakily. “Y-Yeah.”

“ _No_ ,” Keith said again, shaking his head. “No, no, _no_ , you can't— Lance, you _can't_ , I—”

“Give the Galra hell from me, okay, Keith?” Lance asked.

And he was _dying_. Dying in Keith's arms, even if he didn't want to admit it. “Okay,” he whispered.

“And you g-guys will... you'll remember me, r-right?”

Keith's grip on him tightened, ever so slightly. He could feel another lion tugging them towards the castle, but he knew they wouldn't make it in time. “Right. Of... of course we will. I won't let anyone in this entire _universe_ forget.”

“You'll tell... m-my family? And th-the team, too... that I l-loved them?”

“Yes,” Keith told him, pressing their foreheads together. “I promise.” And then, because he'd wanted to for so long, because he never had and he never would again, Keith kissed him. Pressed their lips together, soft and sweet and much, _much_ too short, and then drew away, face wet with both of their tears.

Lance sighed, a soft smile ghosting over his features. “ _Frente al amor y la muerte no sirve de nada ser fuerte_. And Keith?”

“I'm here.”

“Thank y-you. For... everything.” Lance's eyes slipped shut. “ _Puedo ver a las estrellas_.” All the breath left him. He didn't draw in another.

Keith buried his face in the crook of Lance's neck, and sobbed.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Translations (I've been taking Spanish for going on six years, I promise I didn't use google translate, but still tell me if I made a mistake.)
> 
> The first sentence is a saying that means 'Face love and facing death is no long difficult.' Not literally, but that's the message.
> 
> And the second sentence means 'I can see the stars.'


End file.
